really confused on weaning...

[baby1onway]

I'm so confused about feeding my 5month old son, he's a very big baby, so have been advised to wean earlier than usual.which is fine, he's taken brilliantly to all foods!its just I'm not sure what times best to give and when to give that extra meal a day? at the moment this is his daily routine...
8-830- 8oz milk
10am- porridge/banana
12-7oz milk
3pm-7oz milk
530-pureed veg etc
7pm- 8oz milk
8pm-BED!
looking on the internet, and number of books i have they all say different things, any advice would be a great help!the b/f hasn't a clue either!

Have a look at the Gina Ford book of weaning. Whether you like her or not, her book has a really sensible guideline to weaning that fits in well with the routine you already have!

Ultimately you want your LO to have three meals a day by around 1 year (although I think my DS was eating 3 meals by about 7 months, still with milk in the am, afternoon and before bed). Based on her suggestions, I would start introducing solids at the 12pm 'feed' as this will become lunch.

Give half the milk at 12pm to take the edge off his hunger, followed by solids (made up with milk) and then top up with the rest of the milk. Over a few weeks, the amount of milk will have reduced as the solids increase (although the number of oz won't really change as you introduce cheese, yoghurt etc!).

You can then do the same at tea and the same at breakfast.

By about 7-8 months, my LO was having:

7am; 6-8oz milk
8am: breakfast (cereal/porridge + milk + fruit, yoghurt)
11.30am: lunch (protein + carb + veg, fruit, yoghurt)
2.30pm: 6-8oz milk
5pm tea (as lunch)
7pm: 6-8oz milk - BED!

It is really essential that you introduce protein swiftly as stores of iron are pretty much gone BY 6 months, so your LO needs to be eating adequate amounts at 6 months to replenish those stores.

Good luck

IMO for weaning you need to do a little picking and choosing from different sources, so that you're doing what works the best for you and your baby. As with almost any other baby "plan," one system doesn't work well with all babies. I liked the idea of BLW, but parts of it (including the gagging, which was horrific and scary - I have a dreadful fear of babies choking!) made me nervous. So we're doing some BLW, with pureed foods as well. DS3 seems to be doing quite well with that combination. And we're not quite on a set feeding schedule yet, as he is currently in that "whenever I see food I'm hungry" stage, and we're trying to be more consistent in implementing mealtimes for him. But if he sees his 3yo brother with an apple, he thinks it's mealtime and gets upset!

thanks for the advice, but what does BLW mean? (blush) hehe!oh im with u on the whole gagging thing its sooo scary isnt it?ive had a bit of a read of the gina ford but she's a little bit of a stress head with her routines i think?but i suppose some people swear by her.i just wish someone would say.."right you need to give him this this and this at these times" so i knew i was doing the right thing.am i giving him enough milk?

just cause i baby is big, doesnt mean his stomach is more developed.
They advise not to wean until 6 month at least, because their stomachs arent ready to deal with real food, hence why so many people suffer diseases later in life from being weaned too early, their immature stomachs can be damaged from being exposed to food too early

just stick with what you're doing now. he doesn't need anything other than milk yet anyway so no need to worry about adding an extra meal yet. when he gets to 6 months maybe look at passing him bits of finger food at lunchtime, after his 12 o'clock milk? this can be bits of your lunch time sandwich.

blw is baby led weaning. this means waiting to wean until your baby can feed himself. and then only giving him food, ie not 'feeding' him, so he goes at his own pace. they don't eat much at first as they don't need it. their body gets more able to feed themselves as their need for food increases.

mummyof2 yes not steak and chips before 6months
!1 but what would you do with a solely bf ds who was screaming with hunger and shoving his fist in his mouth after a full feed??

Needimng to wean early because a baby is big is a myth, you don't need to start early at all.

The Mumsnet page on weaning gives lots of good advice.

On weight it says

"Your baby's readiness to absorb solids has nothing to do with his weight. A big baby isn't necessarily going to need solids sooner than a smaller baby because ? bigger appetite and bigger body or not ? the development of his digestive system is governed by age, rather than weight"

"This is a very old-fashioned idea. Weight has little to do with the ability of the body to metabolise foods other than milk." tiktok"

FWIW my baby is massive (above the 99th percentile) and we weaned at 6 months.

i'd put him back on the boob. what is a 'full' feed when you're bf?

.. and here's what it says on the 6 month issue:

Until 2003, parents were advised to wean between four and six months. This was changed to six months after worldwide research (endorsed by numerous health bodies, including the World Health Organisation and the Department of Health) showed, if you wean before six months:

• There's a very real chance your baby's digestive system and kidneys won't be developed enough to cope safely with solid food
• Your baby may absorb fewer nutrients from breastmilk (if he's breastfed)
• There is no positive health benefit for your baby
• Your baby's risk of developing infections and allergies ? and going on to have digestive problems and obesity in later life ? can increase

"My daughter's consultant pediatric endocrinologist strongly believes early weaning is a huge factor in the massive rise in early onset diabetes, digestive disorders and obesity that she sees." Sidge

Another ? very attractive ? reason for waiting till six months is that the whole darn process is a heck of a lot quicker and easier. At this age, your baby is very likely to be able to sit in a highchair, take food easily from a spoon and/or pick up and hold food to feed herself.

Because of this ? and because you can offer him a wide range of foods straightaway ? you can move very quickly onto a good, varied diet. If you start earlier than six months, you will go have to go much more slowly and carefully and the type of foods you can offer your baby will be quite restricted.@

sorry i didn't say that the aformentioned ds was 3months at the time!!

at 3 months they have a massive growth spurt and the answer is milk, milk and more milk

a bit of baby rice/puree is not as filling or as calorific as milk

DD was feeding 2 hourly day and night at 3 months and at 4 months!

god im even more confused now!!my HV actually told me that he would not be able to survive on milk alone now and he needs this extra food is that not right i take it? this parenting thing is so hard!i always figured id just know what to do but it seems it hasnt come naturally.dont think im very good at it to be honest

did your HV actually say that?!

of course he can survive on milk alone ...

you may need to increase the quantities he is taking but milk will meet all his needs for now

in fact, milk should remain a large part of his diet until around 1 year old

That is interesting and iam an older mum but if that 's the case all older people should be much unhealthier than younger ones and i've not seen any evidence . The obesity thing is worse now with young ones isn't it? Just shows you can prove anything with research can't you?

there is evidence about gut readiness etc and a higher incidence of allergies and obesity in children who are weaned early

if you search the archives you will find plenty of stuff on this topic

yes those were her exact words "he wont survive on milk alone now, he's to big"

link here

also i was weaned at 2weeks!rusks and baby rice.im not obese have no allergies, nothing wrong with my digestive system, was i just lucky?

baby - that is a silly thing to say and patently untrue

unfortunately some HVs are very misinformed about weaning amongst other issues

My DD is now 13 months (we have a 3.5 year old too).

I started with a bit of fruit mush at "lunchtime" then some baby rice at tea time and then eventually some breakfast - she had quite bad sicking up so I had to be careful as one choke and everything came back-she then had an awful cough for about 6 weeks at about 8 months so again we were cautious. I just moved up from mushed up veggies and protein to more pulsed and now she's doing great on a bit of stuff fed and picking up fruit/veggies/chopped up meat and anything going her way. They really do go at their own pace but you need to do the introducing and persevere with it - babies don't always like the idea of seomething to begin with but they soon get used to what they like. DD for eg wouldn't even entertain the idea of picking up a blueberry but every day I'd shove a few her way and last week she screamed when I took the box away after she'd shovelled in a few. I'm also lucky having an older child as well as you can test them with some of their stuff whilst giving them a bit of mush to fill them up. DD is now on just two milk feeds, one first thing and one last thing before bed but at 5 months was on three a day - the one in the middle of the day being just after she got up from having a nap.

I think you're doing fine. Perhaps introduce bits of toast and other soft small bits and pieces for finger foods etc when you feel more comfortable with the choking thing but do what you feel you are comfortable with. Mine both started with mush and DS is a great eater and eats a good range of foods and DD seems to be following suit. Also don't read too many things or else you'll get confused.

Where you want to get to though is three meals a day and p'raps a snack in between. I always give mine the biggest meal of the day at lunchtime - suits me as we're usually in more of a rush at tea and then we can just do beans on toast and the like . I have more time at lunch to concentrate on proper food.....

good luck

the law of averages states some people weaned early will be ok and some won't

because you can't see your baby's gut maturity it is better to wait to as close to 6 months as possible

i was weaned early - i have a bowel disorder (am in my mid 30s)

DD is huge, 20.8lbs on Thursday and on the 98th percentile, has been since she was born pretty much! She is 7 months next week, and I only started weaning her a couple of weeks ago. She has always been a hungry baby, but has survived on milk alone until now. In fact I think she could hold off weaning for another month or so if I wanted her to!

What on earth does your HV think he is going to do? Starve to death because he didn't have a few teaspoons of fruity mush?

Trust your instincts it's massively confusing this weaning business, for almost everyone! Doesn't mean you're not a great Mummy

ok thank u everyone for your advice.think im probably still completely confused.com! but there we go, the link was quite helpful. mummyof2 i didnt want to wean early i was told to, i'd quite like my little boy 2stay a tiny baby forever and just drink milk but unfortunately he's growing up really quickly...sitting up, rolling round and even trying to crawl!

my ds is 3 months and has just gone through a week long growth spurt. if i didn't know better i can imagine i would have introduced food to fill his tummy and stop him demanding food.

he had been sleeping between 9 and 11 hours at night, then all last week he woke every 2 hours. i rode it out, as i'd seen it all before with dd 3 years ago. a week later and we're back to normal. he sleeps 9-11 hours at night again and is a happy soul

i actually think there are plenty of older people with digestive/allergy problems, it's just they weren't diagnosed, they live with it. dh for example was weaned early at 8 wks. 'never did him any harm' according to MIL. except it has. he has IBS and can't tolerate several foods. there is plenty of it about in the older generations. only now we talk about intolerances and allergies a lot more.

I sympathise with OP
You get told massively varying things and even health visitors can say stupid crap. My health visitor was very critical of my son not drinking 'real milk' at age one.
He was of course getting all he needed from breastmilk and healthy meals I prepared, he didn't need cow's milk at all.
Some people are very set in their ways, especially older people who give advice, if they're not keeping up to date with the research that is constantly coming out.

Many people have bowel and stomach conditions now sadly and it seems to be caused by being weaned too early (according to various nutritionists/doctors).

I would do your own research and ask many different people who have knowledge of it and then make your own mind up.

My boy was 9lb 5 and stayed over 95th percentile untill now and he was breastfed only untill 7 or 8 months when he decided to start picking at food.

Breastfed babies under 6 months don't need ANYthing else, the more they suck the more milk will be created.
Mother nature knows more about babies than we do!